No move to oust Musharraf: PPP

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JULY 7. The Pakistan People's Party ( PPP) has denied reports that it is planning to launch an agitation for the `ouster' of the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, before his India visit on July 14.

In an angry reaction to reports in a section of the press, a PPP spokesperson said it appeared that the military regime had resorted to planting fictitious stories in the press about the PPP and its chairperson, Ms. Benazir Bhutto, with a view to discrediting the party and its leadership in the public eye.

The PPP and the military Government have been engaged in a war of wits ever since the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, invited Gen. Musharraf to visit India. Ms. Bhutto had said he had no right to represent Pakistan at the negotiating table with India and was angry with New Delhi for having extended an invite to him and thus, in the process, legitimising his regime.

At one stage, there were hints from the PPP that Ms. Bhutto would like to visit India before Gen. Musharraf. However, in the face of hostile reaction from the intelligentsia and various other sections in Pakistan, she denied any such plans.

The PPP took exception to press reports that Ms. Bhutto had asked party workers to launch an agitation against the Government to oust Gen. Musharraf prior to the summit. A report quoted her as having said in her message on `Black Day' (July 5) that ``I don't mandate him to carry the talks and want him out of power before his scheduled visit to India''.

The spokesperson said neither Ms. Bhutto made such a statement nor her press office issued any such message. ``Such mischievous reports seem to have been planted in the press by the intelligence apparatus to bring a bad name to the party and its leadership.''

He said the PPP had cautioned people that the regime was spending huge amounts of money belonging to the poor on a psychological warfare against the PPP. ``It is a great pity'', he said and hoped that the regime would ``give up its old ways and understand that the world had changed and people could no longer be fooled by such stories''.

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Section  : International
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